Tennessee’s recent summer recruiting surge has taken the college football world by storm.
Josh Heupel and his staff have landed 15 commitments since the start of June, with 13 in the 2025 class and two in the 2026 class. Tennessee’s haul included several four-star prospects and a few headliners including No. 1 OT David Sanders Jr. in 2025 and No. 1 overall prospect QB Faizon Brandon in 2026.
Tennessee’s recent summer stretch has almost made things look easy from the outside. One by one, Tennessee’s commits come strolling in, some even flipping from previous commitments such as Alabama and Oregon.
But make no mistake – Recruiting is as complicated as it seems. From the communication with the player and their families, the coordination with people inside the building, and the opposing recruitment of other programs, it’s no small task to land the prospects that Tennessee has been aiming for.
“I think the success in recruiting for us isn’t something that just happens in the last six weeks,” Josh Heupel said on Monday.
The Vols have worked hard over the past three and a half years to build the program to the caliber that it is today. It didn’t happen overnight.
“I think that there’s so much hard work that goes into it from your staff, from your players here on campus when the recruits come to campus, at this point in our tenure having long-standing relationships with coaches,” Heupel continued on to say. “People have their feet on the ground, the recruits themselves, their families, us being able to recruit to the culture that we’ve built here. The success that we’ve had on the field. Who we are and how we live out every single day. All those things parlay itself into the success that we’ve had on the recruiting trail here.”
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But while recruiting does come with a bevy of complications, there’s also a subtle simplicity to it. There’s a simplicity to building relationships and just putting in the time and effort needed to succeed.
Still, though, it takes a village.
“Time on task,” Josh Heupel identified when asked what has led to Tennessee’s success in recruiting out-of-state players. “That’s with coaches. It is [with] people that come into contact with some of these players. It is trainers, for example. It’s being able to get them here to campus, then having an opportunity to see what Rocky Top looks like.”
Tennessee already had brand recognition but has upped the gameday experience tenfold since the start of Heupel’s tenure. That’s true for all sports, but especially the spectacle that is a Tennessee football game in Knoxville. After three years at the helm of the Vols’ program, Heupel has a complete understanding of what can be best sold about Tennessee.
“The stadium, visuals of game day experiences, them being here for game day and ultimately it’s the culture,” Heupel said about recruiting visits. “It comes down to your players in your locker room being able to be real with them about what it’s like to live out and be a player here day in and day out. And then you look at the success on the field, the growth, the development of players as a man and as a player, where they have an opportunity to go fulfill their dreams.”
Tennessee currently has the No. 6 recruiting class in 247 Sports’ 2025 team rankings.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee football coverage.
Vols HC Josh Heupel details the work and the why behind Tennessee’s recruiting surge over the summer on Monday: pic.twitter.com/Cd9GGs61bM
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) August 19, 2024
